Targets to promote retention
102. Improving retention would be a complex task,
and no single measure would achieve it. However, a change in focus
would be a good start. Jobcentre Plus targets focus, at present,
on job entry. For contracted out Employment Zone provision, where
incentive payments are made for sustainability, a sustainable
job placement is defined as one which lasts at least thirteen
weeks.[115] Jobcentre
Plus itself does not have a direct target on job retention. Organisations
told us that thirteen weeks was far too short a time for a job
to be judged as truly sustainable. Frances Parry of the Employment
Related Services Association (ERSA) told us:
"We want to see people going into jobs that
are sustained over a really long period of time. We regard 13
weeks as being quite arbitrary, a 13-week sustainable job. At
13 weeks all those other barriers to work can often kick in, and
so we would like to see longer sustainable jobs there, and we
think that, if there was a skills strategy that supported that,
we would see people going into jobs, being trained, sustaining
that employment and progressing within that employment."[116]
103. One Plus told us that a longer length of time
should be used:
"From our perspective the key measure of success
is sustaining employment at 26 and 52 weeks. Lone parents in
particular tend to cycle in and out of work because of the stresses
placed on them in the workplace around childcare, managing children's
sickness in education and that kind of thing which puts pressure
on people. If you can support people in the first six months
or so of employment to find ways of managing those issues then
it becomes sustainable."[117]
104. The Leitch review recommends that:
"Jobcentre Plus and others delivering Welfare
to Work services should still be rewarded for getting people into
work. However, they should be rewarded for retention in work for
at least a year. Their contribution to supporting progression
includes referrals to in-work support and delivery of basic employability
skills. This will give providers strong incentives to help people
improve their retention and progression, including through skills
improvements. The [Employment and Skills] Commission will monitor
whether Jobcentre Plus is making its full contribution to sustainable
employment and progression."[118]
105. Comments from the Minister for Employment and
Welfare Reform, Mr Jim Murphy, suggested that the DWP might be
open to the possibility of a more demanding definition of "sustainability":
"The Department has had the view that 13 weeks
is about the right amount [
] we are most focused on what
we think will get the biggest outcome for the investment we put
in, so if there is evidence that it is longer than 13 weeks and
we would get the best outcome, then we would look at that."[119]
106. On the Committee's visit to New Zealand, the
Ministry of Social Development explained to us how people who
had been placed in jobs remained on personal advisers' casebooks,
with follow-up calls and advice to ensure that a placement was
working well. In New Zealand, sustainable employment "focuses
on getting people into employment, spending longer periods in
employment, having shorter transition periods between jobs and
having the opportunity to move into higher-quality jobs over time."[120]
The Ministry of Social Development introduced new result measures
for sustainable employment in 2004-5, to "demonstrate the
move to generating sustainable employment outcomes for the Ministry's
clients."[121]
The new measure refers to an aim of "six months continuous
employment."[122]
Such a shift in focus in the UK could help contribute to a higher
employment rate.
107. Andrew Harrop, of Age Concern, said that the
role of Government in promoting retention should be more strategic
and less direct than its role in helping people enter work. The
focus should be on "getting the right employer/employee relationship,
particularly in terms of reinvesting in people's skills throughout
their careers and in terms of occupational health so that people
with emerging health issues are able to stay in the workplace
rather than being forced to leave work."[123]
Age Concern also suggested that:
"Existing initiatives and pilots need to be
transformed into a integrated, clearly understood package that
includes: access to personal advisers who understand the needs
of employees and employers; support in taking-up training, making
use of the 50 Plus Training Grant and the new Train to Gain programme;
support with occupational health needs; transparent financial
incentives through return-to-work credits and tax credits. Targets
and funding need to reflect the priorities of retention, in-work
training and progression."[124]
108. Jobcentre Plus focuses on placing people into
jobs. However, it is our view that not enough attention is being
paid either to ensuring that those jobs offer reasonable prospects,
or to helping people remain in those jobs in the long term. In
particular, the absence of targets for sustained job placements
in Jobcentre Plus provision, and the definition of a sustained
job placement as one lasting 13 weeks in contracted out provision,
need to be re-examined. Lesley Strathie, Chief Executive of Jobcentre
Plus, told us:
"For people who have been very, very long-term
unemployed and have spent more years on welfare benefit than in
work, our aspiration is to get them into sustainable jobs. I
think the labour market has changed quite a lot, in terms of what
is sustainable, and people now, on average, will have something
like seven jobs in their careers, where they had one in the past;
that is just one statistic on the change. I think six months
is a good point [
]"[125]
109. We
recommend that the DWP should use a new definition of sustainable
employment of 26 weeks, both in its targets for Jobcentre Plus
and contracted-out provision. We also recommend that the Government
liaise with employers organisations to promote sustainable employment.
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